JN Garage E39 Touring M5T Conversion

[wagons ho]

The factory finish on style 32's is shadow chrome, and those look like typical peeling factory wheels.
Silver paint is not factory.

[JN Garage]

The factory finish on style 32's is shadow chrome, and those look like typical peeling factory wheels.
Silver paint is not factory.

Weird all I have seen are silver style 32s in E39 fitment offered by companies like Pelican or ECS

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I remember them coming in both silver, and shadow chrome.

[JN Garage]

I remember them coming in both silver, and shadow chrome.

BMWs have so many cool options

These poor wheels have been beaten up pretty good so I am off to drop them off in the next week to be refinished

[JN Garage]

Picked the car up from winter storage and got it on a lift

Inspected everything and it turns out the car was very well serviced as we only found a few items that need addressed.

Sway bar endlinks are toast
Shocks / struts are old and tired
tie rods are in need of replacing

Everything else appears to be in excellent shape with no major tearing on the subframe bushings or any signs of failure.

[JN Garage]

Did a lot of suspension work this week

Replaced the following

Tie rods
front struts
rear shocks
front brakes

I suspect these are original as they are extremely worn out.

I am still waiting on the style 32 wheels to come back from refinishing and to install the newer headlights this week.

[JN Garage]

Averaging 20mpg during dream cruise in bumper to bumper traffic is not too bad.

Replacing brake lines and finishing the rear brakes this week and driving it up to a european car show.

[CPHES]

Did you do rear subframe bushings?

[JN Garage]

Did you do rear subframe bushings?

Not yet that is likely a spring project with all the control arms

[CPHES]

About the style 32’s finish - here in the northeast - they were almost all silver. Not shadow ( in the M5 style 65 vein ). Almost - my spare is a pale gold color. For sure from factory ( mine is a 12/98 car ), and I see that color in some print ads.

[JN Garage]

Yeah most I have seen were silver , they are getting refinished now for 2023 in silver once again.

Drove the bmw 200 miles this weekend up to Frankenmuth for a european car show called Nowo , car ran fantastic and got surprisingly good fuel economy.

No cooling issues at all and no noticeable oil consumption while cruising at 80-85mph.

Definitely need to overhaul all the rear suspension bushings next spring

Things that are being sorted out this fall

- headlight overhaul
- Brake line replacement
- Brake fluid flush
- finish rear brake job

Things to fix over the next 6-8 months / Parts to acquire

- Subframe bushings
- Rear control arms
- Differential mount bushings
- E38 comfort seats
- Spark plugs
- Coil packs

[jp5Touring]

Nice picture, Touring looks good. How is the Frakenmuth show have considered going ?

[JN Garage]

Nice picture, Touring looks good. How is the Frakenmuth show have considered going ?

Its pretty good , of course its catering to the VAG kids with cars on air ride and $4000 BBS multi piece wheels but the show is good. The german food is even better after the show.

There were also plenty of older people with nice oem+ cars as well.

[JN Garage]

Drove out to a BMW track day at Grattan Raceway outside of Grand Rapids , Michigan

Car drove fantastic the entire way averaging 29mpg cruising at 80mph. PCV system is obviously old and broken as after 2 hours on the highway it smokes a little bit after you stop the car then start it again for gas. I am definitely going to buy an E 46 touring now to make into a dedicated track car.

So far spring service is looking like

Spark plugs
PCV system
radiator
cooling kit from FCP
fan replacement
E38 heated comfort seats
rear subframe bushings
rear control arm kit

[JN Garage]

So I may have accidentally bought another BMW wagon

This will be my E46 track wagon come 2024

Plan is to use it as a powertrain test bed for my E39

M54B30 with a ZF8HP45/50 automatic for track use

Goal is Gridlife Touring Cup wheel to wheel racing in 2024/2025

[JN Garage]

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